Student Loans 101 - GOP Gets a "F"
Posted by on June 30, 2006 at 02:07 PM
Today is:
The deadline for current and former college students to consolidate their federally guaranteed loans and lock in new fixed interest rates that, starting Saturday, will rise as high as 7 percent.
Under the mandated change, Stafford loans, the loans most commonly used by students, will no longer come with an adjustable rate, which means a farewell to the long era of low interest rates.
As college costs outpace family incomes and the availability of nonloan financial aid grows more slowly than tuition, more and more students have turned to loans to finance their educations.
So I thought it'd be a good time to compare the Syllabi of the Republicans and Democrats when it comes to helping America's students.
The Republican Syllabus:
- Do nothing as the cost tuition for 4 year colleges rises by an average of 40% (just since President Bush took office)
- Slash $12 billion from student aid programs, not for deficit reduction, but to finance additional tax cuts for special interests and the wealthy
- Leave trillions of dollars of debt for future generations to pay off
The Democrat Syllabus:
- Increase the maximum Pell Grant from $4,050 to $5,800 this year, double the HOPE Scholarship tax credit from $1,500 per student to $3,000 per student, and make the HOPE tax credit refundable.
- Enhance funding for minority-serving institutions.
- Increase support for GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program)
- Forgive the student loans of highly qualified public service teachers who commit to five years in high-poverty schools and of excellent professionals in other public-service careers with personnel shortages.
Which course would you enroll in?
Comments (7) «
I agree that much has to do with the corporate aspect, but has anyone considered the the role voter turnout among the related (college) group? The student loan issue has gotten far, but keeping college affordable won't become as major of an issue, as we hope-At least the Republicans won't care about it until the college demographic becomes a major voting block. I find it as deplorable as anyone. If you don't vote and are eligible to you basically forfeit your right to complain about the state of affairs.
A college education isn't that important.............is it?
Which course would you enroll in?
I'd enroll the course that does away with the FFELP loans where we pay private lenders to loan money at sub-prime rates
and replace them with FDSLP loans (or FDL/FDSL loans) where the US government lends money directly to students and their parents at government security rates without paying points to private lenders.
A program which could be fashioned so that it doesn't cost taxpayers anything and yet delivers loans with the same low interest rate to students and their parents.
In fact, I'd consolidate all the various student loan programs including the Federal Plus loans and Federal Perkins loans into two flavors of direct loans - those where we agree to pay the interest while the student is in school and those where we don't.
Anyone offering that fiscally responsible course?
Here's an interesting article about a man who's spent most of his life trying to get us to spend money a little smarter when it comes to student loans.
Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., is in his 13th term in the House. He has been on Capitol Hill for nearly three decades. He has participated in hundreds of legislative battles and has occasionally gone against his party's leadership – including voting against the $87 billionIraq supplemental spending bill in 2003, one of only six House Republicans to do so.
Budget Numbers - Direct Loans vs FFEL
* Taxpayers would have saved $9 billion in 2005 if all FFEL loans had been made as direct loans.
* FFEL issued $78 billion in net new loans costing taxpayers $9.8 billion over the life of the loan - a 12% subsidy
The regressive republicans are FAILURES!
Sadly, the course worthy of enrolling in is not being offered this semester. How about engaging in the discussion of opportunity costs associated with the current massive spending on military operations, that consequently bankrupt our educational system? I agree in much more spending on education, but the money has to come from somewhere, and with the blank check given the Pentagon, we are missing all kinds of opportunties.
How about a War on Ignorance to replace the costly and ineffective war on drugs, and war on terror?
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